Day 25

I spent the day today in Savannah. It took me a while to finally settle on a parking spot, but I finally found a garage that gave me a good look at the city from above. Driving Austin's car was a blast. I miss driving stick - my prius dulls the driving experience a bit.

My fist stop was Zunzi's on York St. It was recommended to me to get the Godfather sandwich: a hearty loaf of bread filled with chicken and African Sausage. It was amazing!

I then stopped at Leopold's Ice Cream (owned by Stratton Leopold, the producer of films such as MIP3 and Greased Lightning. Pretty good ice cream, nothing to call home about. But it was for the experience. Next on my schedule was to take a carriage tour around town.




The tour was nice enough. Not as thorough and informative as I would have liked. I honestly wouldn't recommend it. But I learned a few things.

Can you recognize this picture? No? Maybe if you put a bench there? This was where the bench scene from Forest Gump was filmed. Now do you recognize it?



And how about this? This is not only the tallest point in Savannah, it's also where the feather in the opening scene of Forest Gump floated down from the sky.



This is Oglethorpe. For some reason they decided to build his statue on the bones of the Native American who gave Savannah to the white man. The rock that was originally there, which marked the grave of the Chief, was moved to accommodate the statue.



I've been waiting a long time to get a look at this. Can you recognize it? It's the Mercer house from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - one of my favorite books. Tours were $12.50 so I decided against taking one.



Jones St. was named the most beautiful street in the south, with good reason. It was absolutely beautiful.



I stopped and got an iced tea from this cafe. Recognize it too? It was also mentioned in the novel.



I did my best the capture the beauty of this city with my tiny camera, but there really is no way for me to show you everything. You have to go there to experience it. I highly recommend you take a trip one day before it burns to the ground again (that's a little joke about the history of Savannah).




It is common practice here to paint your door red when you pay off your mortgage. A tradition dating back for more than a century.



This cemetery has some vandalized tomb stones - none of which I could find - from the Civil War. While Savannah was occupied, the soldiers stayed in the cemetery and actually slept in coffins to keep warm during the unusually cold winter. Some of the more rebellious soldiers changed dates and ages on tombstones, making some people 500 years old or having children older than them.



Neat bicycle route sign.



Jones St:





A few pictures from around Savannah:






This is Bonaventure Cemetery, from the novel as well. The statue on the cover photo had to be moved to the visitors center for safe keeping due to all the tourists. I was here during a thunder storm which, combined with the Spanish moss hanging from all the trees, made the experience unforgettable.






I made my way back to Austin's house, made a trip to the bike shop to get me handle bar fixed and had some dinner with Austin's family. After a day of wandering the city, I was pretty tired. I called it a night around 10 and had no trouble at all falling asleep.

Total mileage: 0